Love is missing these days. Kinda breaks my heart. I remember as a youngster, my mother constantly quoting Abraham Lincoln.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
It's frightening that this seems to be the case some 154 years after Lincoln's death. Our world is spinning on frustration, anger, and entitlement. If we don't get our way, we become like little children, kicking and screaming and blaming everyone else. Worse, we become vindictive. We are, just as Lincoln predicted, destroying ourselves.
Our world appears to be teetering on the edge of loveless.
Paul knew better than anyone what a world void of love felt like. After all, he himself was somewhat loveless as he crusaded to kill Christians. When the love of Christ covered his horrible acts of sin and God called him into service, he experienced full and redemptive love. Paul pleaded for his thorn in the flesh to be removed, and though there are several theories on what his ailment was, one cannot help but wonder if he was not haunted by his past deeds. Still, in Paul’s deepest anguish of rejection and pain, he held on to the hope found in the love offered to him through Christ. Paul continually reminded those he taught that without love, we are nothing.
I could have written a sweet story about love in this devotion, but that is not what God laid on my heart. He nudged me to look past the Hallmark holiday and see a world struggling to love and be loved. I love my husband and I certainly will acknowledge him today, but honestly, the thing that weighs heavy on my heart is a world quickly slipping into “loveless.”
Begin with the love of your family. Teach your children that without love, they are nothing. Forgive in love. Encourage love over everything else. After all, Christ did just that. With a single utterance, He could have been swooped away from the clutches of death, but instead, He loved us so much that He withstood the agony and died. For. Us. All because of love.
Love with all you have and with all you are, and be a voice that is heard echoing in a world that so needs love.
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Cindy K. Sproles is a best-selling, award-winning author. She is a speaker and a conference teacher who teaches nationwide. Cindy is the cofounder of Christian Devotions Ministries, www.christiandevotions.us, and www.inspireafire.com. She serves as a writing mentor with WRAMS (Writing Write Author Mentoring Service) and is the director of the Asheville Christian Writers Conference. Visit Cindy at www.cindysproles.com.